My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Yan Nuoya lightly cupped a hand over her mouth and lowered her voice as though sharing a secret.

"Anyway, that's what you think too, isn't it?"

After saying that, she gave him another playful wink.

Thanks for the invitation, but he was already considering running away overnight with a bucket in hand.

Did this woman even know what color his underwear was?

When you had too many friends, just maintaining those relationships could be exhausting.

As long as you had one or two close friends willing to help you when it mattered, that was enough.

Let things take their course. If you got along, great; if not, so be it. There was no rule saying you had to become friends with someone, or that you had to make a certain number of friends.

That was one of his principles when it came to making friends. Forget his friends—even his parents couldn't possibly know it.

Yet besides himself, there was actually someone who understood him this well?

No matter how he thought about it, it seemed impossible unless that person could read minds...

He hesitantly glanced at Yan Nuoya. Given how she'd always acted, it wouldn't be all that surprising if she really could read minds, would it?

If she did have telepathy, a lot of things would make sense.

"Don't look at me like that. I really don't have something as convenient as telepathy."

Yan Nuoya shook her head with a helpless smile. "I'm just more familiar with myself, that's all."

Of course, the person most familiar with you would always be yourself. That was an entirely correct piece of useless nonsense.

It was perfectly normal for Yan Nuoya to know herself well, but what did that have to do with being able to easily guess his thoughts?

Could she mean that...

Just as he was about to ask further questions and fill in the answer forming in his mind, two girls walked into the classroom and stood at the podium.

Seeing the students below noisily chatting among themselves, the two girls clapped their hands.

"Quiet down, everyone."

Preparations for Military Training

The two girls were their student assistant seniors. The taller, fairer one on the left, with an imposing air about her, was Li Xiaoshuang.

The one standing on the right looked smaller and more delicate, with a gentler temperament. She was Yue Yarou.

Although that was everyone's first impression of them, both Li Xiaoshuang and Yue Yarou were actually very easygoing.

Then again, although they were called student assistants, they had only arrived at the university one or two years before the freshmen. They were merely more familiar with the campus.

If they really tried to put on airs, whether the younger students would put up with it was another matter.

The two seniors had originally planned to follow the same routine they'd experienced themselves: start with introductions, move on to electing class representatives, then explain a few matters and wrap things up.

Unexpectedly, trouble began at the very first step—the self-introduction segment.

Since he and Yan Nuoya were sitting in the front row, the seniors naturally called on Yan Nuoya first.

Li Xiaoshuang gestured invitingly toward the two of them and said with a smile, "Let's start with the students sitting at the very front."

Yan Nuoya slowly stood up and said calmly, "Hello, everyone. I'm Yan Nuoya. Please take care of me."

Yan Nuoya didn't seem particularly interested in this part. After saying only a few simple words, she quickly sat back down.

With the very first introduction being that brief, the two seniors immediately found it hard to keep their composure.

Uh, she was probably just bad at socializing, not some troublemaker.

It was the first time either of them had served as student assistants, and they became increasingly uneasy. They could only comfort themselves that way.

Naturally, it was his turn next.

Under the seniors' expectant gazes, he slowly stood up.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Mo Xiangwen. My hobby is gaming. Please take care of me."

He hadn't intended to cause the seniors any trouble. It was just that once he stood up, he realized he had nothing much to say, so he added a hobby to Yan Nuoya's introduction.

What he hadn't expected was that those few words would become the standard template.

The other male students copied it outright, at most changing their names and hobbies.

That was perfectly normal. There wasn't much to say in a self-introduction anyway.

They were all people who usually spent more time around computers. Asking them to make their introductions creative was honestly asking a bit much.

The two seniors, relieved that they'd managed to keep things moving, continued on to the election of class representatives.

Those who hadn't attended university might not know this, but university class representatives were basically there purely to serve their classmates.

Back in elementary and middle school, everyone still treated class representatives as something special.

After all, class representatives could order their classmates around at will. It felt pretty impressive.

Now, the tables had turned.

The class could order the class representatives around instead.

Whenever there was something that required class representatives to find people to help move things and the like, wouldn't they have to go around asking people nicely one by one?

What are you doing right now? Are you free? Could you come help out?

If you actually started pointing fingers and ordering people around, just see whether anyone would listen to you.

So, the most important thing for a class representative was to maintain good relationships with the masses. That was the only way to make work easier.

Otherwise, when you really needed someone's help, all you could do was see whether they were willing to cooperate.

So what did diligently working as a class representative get you?

Officially, it was called an opportunity to develop yourself and gain social work experience in advance.

Listen to that. Didn't it sound a little familiar?

Then there were promises about evaluations, grades, work experience, and all that.

How useful those things really were, and how much they mattered, depended on how you saw them.

As for him, he wasn't interested in any of that. With that time, he'd rather chat with the goofy people in his group.

At least the happiness was real—unless someone started hauling stones again.

Yan Nuoya beside him also looked utterly uninterested. She propped up her delicate chin with one hand, her little head looking as though it might droop at any moment.

She looked sleepy all over, and every now and then he could hear one of her adorable yawns.

If not for the basic respect she had for the seniors and her classmates, she'd probably already be playing on her phone.

Still, even though the two of them had no interest, that didn't stop a small handful of students from being extremely enthusiastic about becoming class representatives.

When the election ended, he made a point of remembering the names of the class monitor, Dong Xiang, and the vice monitor, Li Xiaoxiao.

"Oh, right. This afternoon, the class representatives should remember to find a few students to pick up the military training uniforms from the hall."

Having suffered through the lack of enthusiasm from certain students and finally gotten a temporary reprieve, the seniors still remembered to give them instructions before leaving. Truly touching.

Military training uniforms were clothes whose only notable strength was their absurd durability.

The matching shoes carried that quality through even more thoroughly.

Those hard, flat shoes were uncomfortable just to wear, never mind having to stand at attention and march in them for half the day.

Anyone with military training experience knew that after standing in those shoes for less than half an hour, your legs and feet would start going numb.

But there was no helping it. Nobody had a choice.

Still, everyone wasn't stupid. Naturally, they had their own countermeasures.

Since the soles were hard and the shoes were flat, why not stuff a soft insole inside?

If soft insoles were hard to find in physical stores, other things could be used as substitutes.

Among all those substitutes, there was one item that was breathable, absorbent, soft, and cheap.

It perfectly met every requirement for a soft insole.

Its only drawback was that it was something only girls used, so it wasn't easy for boys to buy.

If you wanted to buy it yourself, you needed a pretty thick skin.

After the boys finished their first day of standing at attention and their feet were aching and sore, they'd have no mind left to care about something as unimportant as pride.

But by then, it wouldn't be so easy to buy anymore.

There was plenty in stock now, but he still didn't dare buy it.

Mo Xiangwen silently stared at the shelf of sanitary pads. After struggling internally for a long while, he decided not to buy them.

Yes, he knew that being too proud only led to needless suffering. He'd never understood why so many people chose pride over comfort before, but now he understood.

Some things were destined to be hard to overcome, and some suffering had to be endured.

Enduring it for ten or twenty days didn't seem completely impossible.

"Xiao Yi? I've seen you standing here staring for ages. Do you want to buy this?"

Mo Xiangwen turned around and paused in surprise. He hadn't expected Su Mengyao to appear here alone.

At some point, Su Mengyao had come up behind him and was looking at him with great interest.

"More or less." Mo Xiangwen asked, "Where's your sister, Su Mengli? Why are you by yourself?"

If he denied it, Xiaohuo would only become more interested. He might as well admit it openly.

After all, using them as insoles wasn't anything shameful. It was just a little embarrassing.

"She's preparing for group activities in the dorm. I came out to buy some snacks."

So that was it. No wonder he usually saw them together, while today he'd only seen Su Mengyao.

"What does Xiao Yi need sanitary pads for?" A smile appeared on Su Mengyao's face as she teased, "Don't tell me you're using them yourself?"

"I saw it online. When we went to pick up the military training uniforms today, I remembered it." Mo Xiangwen glanced at her and said as evenly as possible, "The shoes that come with military training are uncomfortable, so you need something to pad them."

Su Mengyao nodded thoughtfully. "That's what we did during our military training too."

"But we only thought of using sanitary pads after suffering for several days."

"Does the school sell suitable insoles?" Mo Xiangwen asked. "If they do, wouldn't insoles be better?"

"Mm, probably." Su Mengyao thought for a moment. "Even if they don't, you can order some online. They'll arrive in two days."

Mo Xiangwen froze, only then remembering that online shopping was an option.

Deliveries arrived quickly here, and the variety of things online was simply endless.

As long as you could think of it, you could basically buy it.

When he was in university before, that had been his first time experiencing military training.

By the time he realized the military training shoes were uncomfortable, training had already started. It would have been too late to order anything online then.

Now was different. There were still a day or two left, which should be enough time for delivery.

"Still, sanitary pads really do seem more useful." Su Mengyao shook her head. "Insoles are more comfortable, but thin ones don't work well, while thick ones might not fit inside the shoes."

"Then I'll buy insoles instead." Mo Xiangwen shook his head. "It's only a few extra yuan. Not a big deal."

"Why not prepare both?" Su Mengyao blinked and asked. "What if the insoles don't fit when they arrive? It'll be harder to buy sanitary pads then."

What she said made quite a bit of sense.

Seeing his hesitation, Su Mengyao asked with a sweet smile, "Want me to buy them for you?"

"Please, Miss Su Mengyao."

Since Su Mengyao had already seen through him and had even offered to help, he couldn't be bothered to keep pretending to be reserved. He immediately asked her.

"You're really direct." Su Mengyao hadn't expected him to agree so readily. She nodded. "Fine. Since you asked me."